a sound, so too nothing outside these categories can be seen.” He said: “They may also begin by saying: ‘If vision can perceive the Creator, exalted is He, why cannot the other senses perceive Him, so that He could be heard, smelled, tasted and touched? Since the impossibility of this is rationally self-evident, the same applies here.’”

Then he said in reply: “As for accepting that He can be touched, smelled, tasted and heard, our brethren (in one copy: ‘some of our brethren’) have accepted this. This is indeed a necessary consequence for anyone who relies on rational arguments in this matter. As for someone who relies on scriptural arguments, he may say: ‘Since scriptural evidence establishes that He can be seen, I affirm it; but no evidence has established that He can be tasted